Questions for Answers

January 5, 2011

Because I’m curious, we’re going to have a question and answer session today. I always read other blogs wondering a few things:

1. Why did this person start their blog? Did they have some personal crisis or revelation? Were they bored at work? Were they just tired of taking pictures of their food and having nowhere to post them? Whatever the reason, what was it?

2. What does this person do for work? Do they have a full-time, 9-5’er, or are they a full-time food/exercise/photo blogger?

3. Where does this person live? Where did they grow up? What is their background (school, family, food choices, etc)?

So, since I have some free time today, I’d love for you to play: Why, what, where? Post your answers in the comments and I’ll try to put them up in the actual post today! That way we all get to know each other just a bit more. And if you don’t have a blog, what brings you to the world of blogging? What is your lure?

I started Go Dairy Free to share everything I had learned about dairy-free living. But I started my blog because the website became this big diverse site, with recipes and recommendations from so many different people, that I wanted a place to share just my recipes and foodie thoughts.

I guess you could say I’m full time at “this,” with this including book publishing, freelance writing, blogging, website management, etc. Yep, you can make a living at this stuff!

I live with my Canadian-American husband and cat at North Lake Tahoe, but will soon be moving back to the Pacific Northwest. I grew up in Oregon, but have since lived in many places throughout the west. I have a bachelor’s degree in finance and even worked in that field back in the day. I like health and nutrition better though! Our whole household is dairy-free and always experimenting within a whole foods diet to see what types of food make us feel the best. Okay, that’s all for now …
.-= Alisa Fleming´s last blog ..Slightly Spicy Tofu-Avocado Sushi Rolls =-.

Alrighty then:
1. I originally started my blog at the urging of some friends who had blogs and to share what was going on in my and my family’s life with distant friends and relatives.
I really didn’t even know about “food blogs” at all, but started to read and lurk after I was diagnosed with celiac disease. I needed gluten/dairy/egg free recipes and found lots of great blogs with much needed recipes. I think the first one I found was HEAB 🙂

2. I am certainly not a full time blogger-just a “for fun” blogger. I am a full time nanny and mommy and wife.

3. I currently live in Seattle, but grew up in Wisconsin and have lived ALL OVER the U.S. including New Jersey, Philadelphia,and Colorado. I went to college in Wisconsin also, and it’s weird because my stepson goes there now!
.-= Heather (Perspective Is Everything)´s last blog ..Little a thisLittle a that =-.

I know you may know some of this already, but whatever! I wanna participate!
1. I started following food blogs and after about 6 months I decided I wanted to get in on the action! The timing was perfect because I moved out of the dorms and into a home and could actually cook my own food.

2. I am a full time student! My last job though was being a beer girl (ahem… beverage cart attendant) on a ritzy golf course in Austin.

3. I grew up in Austin TX and then went to UCSB for 2 years and am now in Davis at UCD for 2 years! I love Austin and am glad that I can always go back there. I had a ball in high school and had a really rough time my first two years at college. I liked Santa Barbara but I hated the school. Davis so far has been incredible, I wish I could get back those first two years!
.-= Lauren @ WWoB´s last blog ..Broiled goat cheese and salted banana crostini =-.

I love finding out the who/what/where/when/why of other bloggers. Gives me a bit of insight into their real lives/turns me into a super stalker.

1. I started to cook in college when I was trying to lose weight and started to read food blogs in order to find recipes. After reading them for about a year I thought huh. I should do this! And so I did!

2. I am a part time blogger, part time runner, part time medical student. Mostly the first two though 😛

1. I started my blog to keep me motivated to recovery from my eating disorder…and also to meet people going through similar things as I am. Also, since I have always been a writer, I found it a great place to prevent my writing skills from rusting while I was taking a hiatus from college.

2. I sure wish I were a full-time food blogger! That’s my dream, actually. To be paid to eat and write and cook and travel. I’m still looking for someone dumb enough to pay me for that. But currently I am a college student, and a writer for my school newspaper.

3. I live in L.A. right now. I grew up in Singapore, for 10 years before I moved to Washington D.C. My family is a missionary serving the Chinese people (though we are Koreans) so faith is an important part of who I am. And since my experience with eating disorders, I HATE restrictions of any kind. I used to want to be a raw foodist, but truthfully, I just wanted to restrict my food choices. Now, I eat anything and everything, and proud of it.

1. I started my blog on a whim one late night at home. I love cooking and baking and always have and I’d been reading (lurking) on food blogs, so I just thought, what the hell? Never thought I’d still be doing it though!

2. I am a full time grad student hopefully finishing my PhD this spring. I also teach high school environmental science twice a week.

3. Originally from Wisconsin, but I’ve lived in AZ for 6 years now. I grew up in a VERY meat and potatoes family and hated vegetables until I was about 23 or so. I was even vegetarian for about 5 of those years….I lived on pasta and….um….pasta. Oh, yeah, and beer (it was college, what can I say?)

1. I’ve kept various online journals for some years now, starting, horror of horrors, when I was dying of anorexia and completely isolated, and hung out on pro-ana forums supporting and commiserating. I’m a writer no matter what else I do, and started this blog almost a year ago because I wanted to have an outlet to communicate and share some of my creativity and healing. I no longer live in a place where I can do rawfood cheffing and I’m no longer in touch with the rawfood community, so foodwise it helps too! Talked about this a bit in my last blog post.

I work freelance as a writer, editor and translator, and this year I’m going back to school for an MFA in poetry (low-res, so long-distance mostly). I homesteaded in HI, which was pretty full-time, and we do some of that here too, but less for me because the growing season isn’t year round and I’m not much of a flesheater.

1. I started my blog as a way to learn how to cook when I got married. At first it was all about recipes, but now that we have been married a while and I know how to cook, I decided to change my blog focus to what I REALLY loved, which is fitness and food 🙂

2. I work part time as a secretary for my father in law and I also work part time at my church for my mother in law (yes my inlaws employ me, but I worked for them BEFORE my hubby and I got married!!)

3. I live in sunny LA, Cali. My parents got divorced when I was two so I have grown up in both places, which are VERY different from one another. LA is busy with people and Escalon (where daddy lives) is all about relaxing and enjoying the country life. I prefer country living, but that’s just because I’m a hick at heart 😉 I actually had a rough childhood, which led to some serious scars in terms of food. I still battle my demons, but having an amazing husband has really helps 🙂
.-= Kat´s last blog ..Sometimes =-.

1. My first blog (Chute Assis) is a chronicle of my journey from an Engaged East Coast Staff Personal Trainer to a married West Coast Business Owner! Zen Pulse – my second blog – was started to encourage my clients current and former to eat and live healthy!

2. I am working up to full time. As a new business owner, it’s pretty much 24-7… but I’m only training and teaching part time as things grow. Blogging and marketing/networking fill up the other time!

3. I grew up in Wisconsin. Went to High School and College in Arizona. Took off with my cat and my car to Washington, D.C. after college. Then came running back to the West Coast! I eat mostly vegan. Some raw. All vegetarian. All delicious and all foods that leave me feeling energized and amazing! It’s been a journey from dieting-to-eating as a lifestyle, but a beautiful one.
.-= Anne´s last blog ..Diary of a Trainer =-.

1. I started the blog to connect with others who really cared about healthy living. I was the weird one who was vegetarian and loved talking about healthy cooking and exercise. I needed to find an outlet that supported my choices and inspired me. I read a blog post one day (can’t remember which blog) and then I decided to cook up my own:)

2. I work fulltime as a quality control supervisor for a company that provides growing media to greenhouses and nurseries. I am hoping to start school this year to enter my dream career of an ND.

3. I grew up in an area of British Columbia called the Okanagan. It’s tree fruit and wine heaven!! We also have two lakes so it’s sweet fun in the summer. I am a single child to a single mother. I lucked out and received a scholarship in high school and entered university where I graduated with a BSc. in Biology. I grew up eating everything besides oatmeal and rice pudding. My mom was a good cook and we ate pretty healthy. I wished i spent more time in the kitchen when I was younger because it was only when I got married that I learned to cook. I’m still learning every day!!
.-= melissa´s last blog ..Big Day =-.

1. I’m not sure what brought me to the first food blog I read (probably 2ish years ago), but I do remember it was For the Love of Peanut Butter, which isn’t up anymore, and from her blog I got to HEAB’s and Kath’s, and that was the beginning of an obsession. I was looking to healthify my life, and I found inspiration from these ladies and others. I started photographing my own food and had quite a few people suggest I start my own blog. I delayed due to a crappy camera, but I got a good deal on my camera at Costco and here I am!

2. I work from home as a medical transcriptionist (more than) full time and also am going to massage therapy school! I am currently looking for a different job that I can use to balance my school work better… I need dedicated time off which I don’t really get at the job I’m at now.

3. I live in Austin, TX and have been here for almost 24 of my almost 29 years on this planet. I LOVE it here. I grew up in a family that loved to cook and owned a BBQ restaurant at one point, but I hated cooking! It was only a couple years ago when I started trying to eat healthier that I started cooking for myself, and really only in the last year or so that I have found a lot of love and fun in the process of cooking and baking! If you had asked me 3+ years ago if I would ever enjoy cooking I probably would have laughed in your face! 🙂
.-= Christin@purplebirdblog´s last blog ..Tempting Tempeh =-.

1. I’ve always loved to cook and bake and one of my favorite past times is reading cookbooks and food magazines (I know, boring to many!). I was flipping through a Taste of Home magazine over a year ago and they featured a “food blog”, which I didn’t even really know what that term was. I logged on and started reading them and thought I should do this! So I did. I share recipes, food tips and the little humors on my life:)

2. Right now I am working full-time, but the past year I stayed home with our new son and took full advantage of that. I would love to continue to stay home (as we have another on the way), but it isn’t feasible at the moment. My dream would be to publish a cookbook or to somehow get into the food business.

3. I live in Iowa. Always have, and probably always will. Although many don’t know where it is, let alone think they would never want to visit, it is actually a great place to live and to raise a family. Four season, beautiful landscapes, great schools, friendly people. All you really have to deal with is a lot of corn, pigs, cows, etc.! As far as schooling I have my B.A. in Media and Journalism, and would love to ACTUALLY USE it someday!
.-= Ally @ Sweet & Savory´s last blog ..Stuffed Mushrooms =-.

hi lori! yea, i’m the first to respond to your quiz!
1. i started reading blogs during my bored-to-death moments of thesis writing. i began trialing recipes and baking for housemates, then as soon as i graduated i started bakery manis. i really wanted to share a slice of my life- not just food and recipes, but also growing food and food politics. my blog has been evolving, and now is host to lots of food news, homegrown insight, and sharing the joy of feminist housewife life.
2. i do have a full time job now. i previously worked at a french bakery, a vegetarian grocery store/deli, and now i am doing marketing/outreach for another Hawaii-based veg store named Down to Earth.
3. i live in Maui! i lived on oahu for ten years, but moved to maui about a year ago. there is so much amazing food grown here, and a lot of opportunity to really live a homey, healthy life. we are moving farther into the country, where we can grow a big garden and i can get me some chickens! and maybe some goats too!
.-= andrea devon´s last blog ..making broth =-.

Search What Runs Lori

What Runs Lori?

From overweight to underweight.
Eating disorder to healthy thinking.
Depressed to centered and happy.
Vegan to Paleo.
Cardio queen to weight lifting hero.
I've experienced the spectrum and enjoying blogging about it all!